Finnish Squad Types - Question for Designers re: rationale and etc.

Michael Dorosh

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Apologies if this has been discussed before. I'm familiar with many of the earlier discussions on this forum re: what the evolution of the various squad counters and what they represent. The SS for example, with the 6-5-8 perhaps typifying a mid to late war squad from one of the low numbered divisions, which had a high complement of LMGs and semi-automatic weapons, with 4-6-7, 4-4-7 counters being given SS status to represent some of the ethnic formations, etc. Other discussions have taken place with regards to, for example, the British 4-5-8 to represent Canadian troops, the U.S. 7-4-7 to represent Paratroops or Rangers, etc.

With all that in mind, I am curious what the designers had in mind with regards to the "new" Finnish counter types, and if any of the types were meant to correspond to either specific types (engineers, ski troops) or different periods (i.e. Winter War, Continuation War, Lappland War).

I was very impressed as always with the quality of the contents in my copy of Hakkaa Päälle. Tangentially, I thought the early-war Russian doctrine rule was quite interesting, particularly tha preventing Russian troops from using the Armored Assault rule. I think there might be historical precedent to extend that prohibition to other nationalities by SSR - reading Michael Doubler's work on U.S. troops in the bocage, for example, and the trouble that certain U.S. Army units had with tank-infantry cooperation, it seems like a natural.
 

Perry

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Just addressing that last point, we are using a version of the "no armored assault, move first or last" SSR for two D+2 scenarios in our upcoming 29th ID Action Pack. Soon after that, the 29th starting working on tank-infantry teamwork with the tank battalions they were fighting alongside.
 

Vinnie

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I was under the impression the Finnish units were powered up to reflect their better performance against Soviet troops to avoid having a slew of really poor Soviet troops. The 6-4-8 should probably be a 4-4-8 when compared to a German unit but the Soviet 4-4-7 might better be a 2-3-7 given how poorly they performed.
Since the HP covered later war actions too, the over lowered Finns needed ratchwd down to normal levels not because they got worse but because their opponents got better.
 

larth

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Sorry Michael, missed answering this. The lower quality troops are required for all three Finnish wars as the performance was far from super all the time. There is more information here.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Sorry Michael, missed answering this. The lower quality troops are required for all three Finnish wars as the performance was far from super all the time. There is more information here.
Excellent! Thanks for the reply, and the link. Great response.
 

asloser

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Excellent! Thanks for the reply, and the link. Great response.
I missed this too as I do not follow this paart of the forum actively.

Just note that the 437 conscript lost its selfrally capability what things moved forward.

Wow. 2004. It has been a long time.
 
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